Today was a much bigger turnout than the previous week, even though it was bitterly cold again and everyone was wearing gloves, hoodies and beanies to keep from being colder than a popsicle. I think some of the guys out today were here because they knew Livewire (Tim Shieff) would be out later in the day to train Nottingham and wanted to meet him in person, see what he could do and how he trained, what with him fast becoming a celebrity within the YouTube and Parkour community due to his immense strength and hand balancing skills. Another Nottingham rising star Jan, the smallest young man you’ll meet, was out training today too. It was good to see him attending as he hadn’t been out for a while, what with being busy and school exams coming up for most. He was on top form today though, wanting to get as many things down and filmed for a future video release he had planned.

It would seem many people had videos lined up for release soon, Jan, Flip, Jak, myself, Pyro and I’m sure there were others too. It was cool that so many from the community were producing video content, as from watching them you get ideas for your own videos, this in turn spurs you to try and be different and creative with movements. Not to mention it’s a bit of friendly competition too as everyone wants their video to be unique. I’ve noticed people always want to be the first to do certain movements too so they are the first to have it uploaded before it becomes the norm and easy for everyone else to do. One of those moves would be the Gray Walls downwards precision from the window ledge to the from wall. This is something many people have looked at, but as of yet no one has attempted or succeeded to do it, yet!

We started our training behind the Arkwright building, an area which we seem to be visiting increasingly of late. It has some cool things to train though, precisions, catleaps, laches, kong precisions, all of different and increasing distances. One of which I got a burst shot of Jan as he did a kong over a stair set leading down to a basement. He wanted to kong over the rail and try to reach the top step, needless to say he was close, but not quite close enough as he began to vanish out of sight as he landed. There was a small wall perfect for the beginners to practice basic vaults over and get a feel for training, one of the fun tasks came when Jak spoke about the Ong-Bak movie and how Tony Jaa pike jumps through a circle of barbedwire while being chased. Jak wanted to try and emulate this while jumping over the small wall. As well as vaulting over the wall some of us tried vaulting with our unnatural sides for lazy vaults, speed vaults to adjust to opposite training.

Jan and his Polish sausage.

I captured some rather funny portrait images of Jan, being the little poser that he is. It’s strange because Jan doesn’t like his photo being taken and yet he is willing to pose for them which makes no sense at all. I’ll let you decide what is going off in shot above though, perhaps he was trying to show us some of his famous Polish sausage? The portrait of Flip was a candid moment when he was setting up his camera and stuffing his face full of Wine Gums in the process before being papped by me. Jan was sizing up a kong precision over a gap, Jak had a few attempts but lacked getting anywhere close. Jan gave some preps on the nearby wall before giving it his all, still holding back a bit which made him crane the landing, holding onto the black fence for extra security. It took him a while before he got more comfortable to put more power into the kong nailing it perfectly, on one attempt he put too much power in and nearly had to jump the story down below if he hadn’t have held on to the fence for dear life.

I wish I could do something as impressive kong precision wise, I hated kongs with a passion and always will, I cannot for the life of me fathom how to gain distance from them. I feel in many ways, behind in my training what with everyone being able to do kong precisions of any size these days. Livewire had text and it was time to go and pick him up from the Concert Hall where his bus had dropped him off, so we climbed up the metal fence and over or for some us, gate vaulting over as that was the easier option. Not so much for Jan who got his headphone wires caught as he came over, losing his batteries of his mp3 and some change in the process. As always Tim was doing some impressive handstands on the high railing at the Concert Hall, which caught the attention of the public passing by and can be seen in the first image of this post. It must take hours, months and years to be able to have a great handstand like that without moving. Pyro was practising a kong precision which I had never seen anyone else try and do before, which I took an image off and thought looked very interesting.

Livewire – Double Kong.

Tim mentioned he wanted to practice his kong precisions and double kongs today as that is what he had been drilling a lot recently and wanted to check out one which he had seen near Rock City (image above) the last time he was over. It was from a rail to a wall while running across the main road to attempt it. It was cool to see him do it with such ease, doing a kong cat first, then a kong precision before doing some kong to hip cats before finally doing the double kong. The height he gets with the first push from the rail makes it look like he is going for a handstand even when he does a kong precision, such strength and control with his movements. While dodging the incoming traffic and vaulting as and when it was clear I got a few photos and God knows what the passing public thought to it all, who stood and watched in amazement before going about their business.

Next was a quick session at the entrance to the IBM area, where there was a yellow rail and a very slippery, dusty white wall. The area has always been full of skips or random mess and since it has been cleaned up the kong to cat had now opened up for people to try. Jan had a few goes at doing a kong to cat with the first few attempts not getting any grip with his hands nor his trainers and would slide down each time or fall on his backside. The scariest part of this is if you were to slip with the hands and then flail down below or into the wall, the top of the wall was hard to grasp as it was rounded and so really burnt the forearms from a static hold, never mind with the force of a kong cat. The photos of Jan doing it came out really nicely, and with him being so small it made the gap look even more impressive.

Next was the IBM area where people were doing precision jumps and having fun with training, while Tim did each kong precision from the rail on the outside of the area to the diagonal edge of the walls inside the area. He did each one in succession which also increased in height, distance and fear each time not that, that seemed to phase him or his his perfect kong technique, even if the rail was very high, higher than most normal ones. I think it’s safe to say we were all in awe of how easy he made them look and the fact we now knew it was possible for people to do those movements, it unlocked possibilities for others down the line to try. Tim also did kong precisions and double kongs over the walls within the area which had chains below them if you failed, again moves which no one else had done before and so it was refreshing to see them done.

It’s always a pleasure and inspiring to have Livewire training in Nottingham, I can only imagine what he will be able to do and want to try next time he is over!